Microsoft Opens Up the PST Format

As more and more information is stored and shared in digital formats, the ability for people to reuse their data across various applications and platforms has become increasing important. As part of an ongoing effort to enable this kind of data portability, Microsoft is announcing that it will be releasing documentation for the .pst file format – the format in which data is stored in Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders.

Providing access to the documentation will facilitate interoperability, enabling customers and vendors to access their data in .pst files across a variety of platforms. This is important to organizations that need exchange key corporate data in and out of Outlook, upload to the cloud, or comply with corporate governance policies.

When it is complete, the documentation will be released under our Open Specification Promise, which will allow anyone to implement the .pst file format on any platform and in any tool, without concerns about patents, and without the need to contact Microsoft in any way.

Discuss this Article 63

"They're opening up a proprietary standard so that others can use it, which will not only mean better recovery/support tools but better cross-platform support. This is a GOOD thing for everyone, and if you don't like the format that's fine too... why the hatred though?"
Ask the FOSS community that one too. They harp on Microsoft for not being open, and when they are, they think it's a big conspiracy to get people to sell their souls to them. There is no patent litigation protection in the Linux world, but there is in the Windows world. Sign up as a partner (for free), and that's it: you're protected. Yet they make a big deal about this because they're against software patents, even though the commercial Linux world holds quite a few already (and have recently bought up a lot to horde them for this exact reason).

@Delmont
Sync takes places continuously and the client polls with the server. It does sync the entire mailbox each time a user opens Outlook. That would be ridiculous.
Only when a new computer is configured with the user's mailbox, would it sync the entire box and sync takes place in the background and is goverened. New items show up first and a user may continue to work.
The "My Site" feature in OL/E2K7/10 is designed to connect users with Sharepoint sites vice pulic folders, which as Waethorn correctly states, have been deprecated in E2K2 and higher. Regardless, public folders and the sync thereof is still there and used the same way if the EO also has older E2K3 servers online and coexisting with E2K7 servers.
BUT... be careful, because those saying that Sharepoint is the answer to large mailboxes need to know that documents are actually copied from the Exchange public folder to the SharePoint document library, storage requirements on the server are doubled as the document is now stored both in Exchange and Share-Point. Consider using quotas to control the size of the SharePoint site. Otherwise, you might find yourself frequently cleaning up the public folders. So if you do enabled this, understand that storage requirements will go up.

"And what happened to their alliance with NVIDIA?" Intel blocked NVIDIA from producing chipsets for Nahalem CPU's. Apple had to go with Intel if they wanted the Core 5/7.
They still use NVIDIA 9400m GPU's in almost all models. Open CL is supported by ATI and so I am not sure how its dead? Its GPU agnostic.
http://www.khronos.org/news/press/releases/the_khronos_group_releases_op...
"Proposed six months ago as a draft specification by Apple, OpenCL has been developed and ratified by industry-leading companies including 3DLABS, Activision Blizzard, AMD, Apple, ARM, Barco, Broadcom, Codeplay, Electronic Arts, Ericsson, Freescale, HI, IBM, Intel Corporation, Imagination Technologies, Kestrel Institute, Motorola, Movidia, Nokia, NVIDIA, QNX, RapidMind, Samsung, Seaweed, TAKUMI, Texas Instruments and Umeå University. "

"What's the deal with Outlook 2007? I can drag and drop files directly into an Exchange mailbox folder and the file shows up in the message list"
Nice feature, I'm glad I read about this. I used to do this sort of thing in FirstClass (bet you haven't heard of that email server!).
Although, I did find that if I drop the file into my Inbox, it creates a message with the file attached. If I drop the file into a folder within my inbox, it lists the file as a message.

@rr0de74,
Pfft.. you create multiple storage groups and place three stores only (saving room for one more to use as a dial tone DB if you ever need it).
You distribute users across the storage groups and stores - taking care to never place all users from any single department in the same store and heavy users spread out equally.
In simple words, you plan and you leverage what the platform can do. This way you can keep any simgle store smaller.
I've not seen or heard any user complain about OL being slow to open - regardless of their mailbox size. It syncs in the background and opens smartly.
Yes, one should, and we do, manage and educate users and yes, we do train them on how to remove attachments. However, more than anything, we let them work - e.g., we work for them - not the other way around. So the focus is on service delivery and providing users the resources they need. Many executives "live" in Outlook. That's fine with us - we're here to make sure they have what they need and we'll welcome the new documentation and more opportunities to extend E2K/OL to apps and vice versa.

Most users just dont care. Give them the space and they will fill it up. That is why you use mailbox manager rules/limits to clean up their crap for them.
A good corporate policy to backup your actions, approved by HR and management.

I agree, the user doesn't see the mailbox open slow. It syncs in the background. I would look for the bottleneck on your LAN or server. Unless the user is awiting a 10gig attachment....the user is already synced locally on his machine from last connection to the Exchange 2007 box.
"You distribute users across the storage groups and stores - taking care to never place all users from any single department in the same store and heavy users spread out equally.
In simple words, you plan and you leverage what the platform can do. This way you can keep any simgle store smaller."
Yes, it's all about planning.
But then I know a guy that complains of Exchange issues...though I think he is actually still on Exchange 2000 and Win2K.

GoodThings,
"Here's my real problem with Apple and Macs... they sell through negative advertising. They attack the competition and claim they're better... but they never bother to say why."
You're missing a key part. What's often done in Apple ads is they attack the competition for things equally or more true about them but by saying it only about the competition the viewer assumes incorrectly that the problem isn't true about Apple even though it is.
Apple didn't (quite) lie since they never actually said they were better.
You see the same tactic in political attack ads especially when the party involved has a very, very vocal core. If they say the system is broken (and even admit it's broken with both parties) then expectations are lowered.
In computers it leads to "if it isn't working it must be my fault because this is the easy computer" and "well, if I can't do it here, I'd be even worse with " even when that's wildly untrue.
In politics it leads to low voter turnout and low interest in what's being done which provides more power to a loyal cadre that vote no matter what and nobody caring about scandals from corrupt politicians who then can use that corruption to keep the core bribed and happy.

@rrode,
"You lack enough real world experience then.."
That's funny. I bet I am older than your parents by at least 20 years. Been at this my entire adult life.
@Delmont, if rrode's platform it is slow, it is for a reason that can be addressed. I'd bet it would be how DB's and logs are stored and where and on what.

lketchum
" However, more than anything, we let them work - e.g., we work for them - not the other way around. So the focus is on service delivery and providing users the resources they need."
And that is the key difference between good and bad IT groups. And getting the mindset of "we'll give the users the minimum data and permissions and flexibility that they can force us to." is why so many of us in the mid 1970s started the personal computer revolution.
For more see, Ted Nelson's "Computer Lib/Dream Machines" or Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine's "Fire in the Valley" or John Markoff's "What the Dormouse Said"